Promise
by Reillusioned
Summary: After the battle with Choukoumei, everybody needs a little patching up. And there are some things a bandaid just won't take care of. But not all wounds are superficial. [Nonexplicit Shounenai, YouxBou]


_(A/N) Ooooohoooho. I haven't written Houshin fics in forever. This feels so weird. Anyways, this takes place between books 12 and 13, after the epic Choukoumei battle. It's supposed to fit in canon, but if my idea of canon bothers you you can pretend it's AU. XD And by that I mean the implied fact that these two have already been together for a while… Mmmmh, delicious fanon. Anyways, standard disclaimers apply: Shounen-ai, mild swearing, slight oocness, medium-level-of-crack pairing, and randomly made up facts (detached arm ftw). Hoooooray. :heart:_

………….

**Boss Defeated: Would you like to heal and save?**

…………..

Youzen pushed aside the tent flap, peering into the dim interior. Things seemed calm enough, but one never knew… "Suusuu?" He called. He was rewarded with a quiet clang and an "Ouch!".

"Don't do that, Youzen!" grunted Taikoubou. He sat on the floor, back against a cot, bandaging up his arm. The prosthetic one that Taiitsu had given him lay on the floor by his feet while he wrapped a bandage around the stump of his left arm. Despite his task his face was a mask of silliness, with his tongue sticking out to one side and eyebrows moving seemingly of their own accord.

Youzen sighed and took a few steps into the tent. "Suusuu…" Sitting down next to him, he grabbed the bandages out of Taikoubou's hands and continued to wrap them around for him, forcibly serene expression on his face. His suusuu's only response was to grunt and look annoyed. "Let it alone, Youzen, I can do it myself."

"Let me." Came the reply. Purple eyes met green ones as the two stared at each other, both aggravated and neither willing to show it.

After a pause, the regular swish of cloth resumed.

"Okay. Why the sudden babying?"

Youzen looked up from his task. "Excuse me?" He said.

"You've never come in and helped with this before."

"You've never needed it." Back to silence, as though that was the end of it.

Gritting his teeth, Taikoubou pulled back. "Don't give me that." He hissed. "Okay, so maybe my arm doesn't get knocked off every day… Worse happens!"

Youzen grabbed his elder's shoulder and glared at him. Opening and closing his mouth a few times, he finally just laid his head on Taikoubou's lap, mumbling to himself.

Concerned, Taikoubou rested his hand on the other doushi's head. "Youzen?" he whispered.

"I thought you were dead." It was louder this time. Raising his head and looking right into Taikoubou's eyes, Youzen took a shaky breath. "We saw a soul fly towards the Houshindai. I thought that you had died. I thought that I'd…" His head dropped again. "That I'd gotten there too late."

Sighing, the dark-haired doushi let his head fall as well. "It worked out, Youzen. Suupuu's fine, so is Bukichi… And aside from having to put my arm back on I've never been better."

"Liar." Came the muffled voice from somewhere around his stomach.

Taikoubou sat up straighter and frowned. "Am not. Look, we won, okay? It was tough- really, really tough- but we won. And that should be worth it, right?"

Youzen pulled himself upwards once more and was face to face with Taikoubou. "No. It wouldn't have been. Not if you hadn't made it."

His only response was an eye-roll. "Honestly, Youzen, I'm hardly the most important person here."

"Yes, actually, you are." Violet eyes narrowed as he continued. "The Shuu need you. The Senninkai need you. So you're fairly important. That, and…" hands tightening on the other man's shoulders, he paused for breath. "I need you."

Taikoubou sighed through a smile, leaning forward to touch his forehead against the other's. "Firstly, no you don't. You'd manage fine on your own. Genius Doushi and all that, right? You'd take over, even." Sensing rather than seeing the scowl on Youzen's face, his own smile grew wider.

"And secondly, I'm not going anywhere. It'd be pretty boring being stuck in the Houshindai for the rest of eternity, wouldn't it?" Running the fingers that he could through dark blue hair, he lowered his voice to a whisper. "I'm not going anywhere. I promise."

A heavy pause hung in the air, filling the small space. 

"Thank you, suusuu."

………

_Here, have some more Author's note._

The part about Bou-chan's arm getting knocked off? Pretty much made up as a plot device. :P I realize it didn't happen, but it seemed to me as though it could. And worked for the scene. Well, that and the fact that nobody ever seems to bring it up, and it seems like a pretty big deal to me. If I had a fake arm with rocket punch I'd be using it 24/7. (Take THAT, physics teacher!)

Sorry if I got any of the titles or names wrong, the version I've read was using the Chinese names, so I get a bit lost with the nicknames and whatnot. Speaking of which, if anybody still has the old SnoopyCool scans on their hard drive, let me know, since Viz is failing. Like, HARD.

_Strangely, this was to be a one-shot, but while actually in the process of writing it another idea struck me, so second chapter is very possible. _

Review for great justice:D You know you wanna.


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